Cup turning machine



March 24, 1953 J. JORDAN 2,632,

CUP TURNING MACHINE Original Filed April 8, 1949 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 1 ml NLL k, E2 '2 gfilifiu J r F I INVENTOR.

JACOB JORDAN ATTOENEY March 24, 1953 J. JORDAN 2,632,223

CUP TURNING MACHINE Original Filed April 8, 1949 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 I- INNINVENTOR. JACOB JORDAN ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 24, 1953 CUP TURNINGMACHINE Jacob Jordan, New Castle, Pa., assignor, by mesne assignments,to Peoples First National Bank & Trust Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., anational banking association Original application April 8, 1949, SerialNo. 86,260. Divided and this application August 28, 1951, Serial No.244,024

4 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a machine for forming handled cups or otherhollow ware of china and like ceramic ware, and more particularly, to amachine which automatically turns and shapes the outer surface of ajiggered cup body. This application is a division of my co-pendingapplication Serial No. 86,260, filed April 8, 1949.

Heretofore the above operations in forming jiggered cups have largelybeen manual operations in ceramic plants. That is, to form a cup,plastic clay is jiggered in a suitable jigger mold to form a rough cupblank of green ware, in which the inside of the cup is shaped. The blankis then placed in a suitable drier to dry and temper the green wareuntil it is suitable for turning. The green cup blank is then placed ona chuck in a turning lathe, where a turner, using a series of shapededgegouges, manually forms the foot, the outer contour of the cup, and therim of the cup; although the rate of out is much faster because thematerial is softer, the turning operation does not initially appear tobe too dissimilar to the hand turning of wood, rough and finish cutsbeing taken and care having to be exercised to avoid tearing andspoiling the work due to chattering of the tool and the taking of roughcuts which are too deep.

Because turners are the most highly skilled, and, therefore, the mosthighly paid workers in clay fabricating shops, numerous efforts havebeen made to develop automatic clay turning machines similar toautomatic wood turning machines. Such efforts have not been successful,however, due to the failure to appreciate the different toolmanipulations required in turning soft green clay.

After the cup bodies are turned and the handles trimmed, the trimmedends of the handles are dipped in an adhesive clay slip and stuck byhand on the cup bodies. The green ware is then sponged and placed on thedrier tray for final drying before firing. Because the contour of thecup body and the contour of the trimmed handle are determined by the eyeof the artisan, substantial variations in these contours were inevitablyencountered. A girl sticking handles can usually adjust the position ofthe handle on the cup bodies so that the contoured surfaces will mate,but, as would be expected, a number of trimmed handles must be discardedbecause of improper contour and a number of handles are crookedlyplaced. So far as is known, no one has yet attempted to provide amachine for accomplishing the manual operation of sticking a trimmedhandie to a cup.

It is the object of this invention to provide a machine which willautomatically accomplish the operation of turning the cup blank, onlyrelatively unskilled labor being required to operate the machine. It isan advantage of my invention that, not only is more precisely contouredware produced, but spoilage is reduced and the labor involved is greatlyreduced.

Other and further advantages of my invention will be apparent from thefollowing specification and drawings of a preferred embodiment of mymachine, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of amachine made according to my invention.

Figure 2 is a view taken along line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a View, taken along line 3-3 of Figure 2, of the cup bowlturning tool, cam, and cam follower linkage.

Figure 4 is a view, taken along line 4--4 of Figure 2, of the lipturning tool, cam, and cam follower linkage.

Figure 5 is a view, taken along line 55 of Figure 2, of the foot facingtool, cam, and cam follower linkage.

In the drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts,my machine comprises a general frame and case I on which is mounted acup turret 2. The cup turret 2 is provided with suitable cup chucksintermittently indexed from a cup loading station to the turning stationE to a handle sticking station and. thence to the handled cup unloadingstation D.

The turret 2 is mounted upon and indexed by the turret shaft 2i! steppedin the casing l. Synchronous indexing of the shaft 20 and the turret 2is obtained by the large shaft gear 2! which meshes with a jack shaftgear H mounted on a vertical jack shaft it, located directly behind theturret shaft 20 in Figure 2. The jack shaft is intermittently indexedthrough by means of the Geneva gear 52 which is mounted on the jackshaft. The Geneva gear l2 is driven by the single roller tooth i3 of theGeneva pinion l4 mounted on the constantly rotating main drive shaftsI5, which is driven by sprocket and chain drive It from the main drivingmotor 11. In addition to indexing the turret 2 intermittently through 90by the above described Geneva drive and jack shaft, the main drive shaftl5 also drives the cup-turning tool cam shaft drive by means of the camshaft power take-off gear I9, the construction and operation of whichmechanism will be more fully described below.

The cup turret 2 carries four horizontal, suit ably journaled spindles22, each carrying a friction gear 23 mounted on the spindles betweenspindle bearings carried by the housing 24 of the rotatable turret 2,the turret housing 24 being journaled for rotational movement on thebearing ring 25 carried by the casing The lower peripheries of thespindle friction gears 23 extend through suitable slots in the base ofthe turret housing into the annular space provided between the bottom ofthe turret housing and the adjacent top of the casing Mounted on theends of the spindles 22 which project beyond the turret housing 24 arethe cup chucks 25 on which the green jiggered cup blanks 4 are mountedat the cup loading station.

The cup chucks 26 are simply turned hardwood blocks having the desiredcontour of the inside of the finished cup 8 which is eventually to beproduced. The tempered cup blank 4 has been previously jiggered so thatthe contour of its inside surface is substantially the same as thecontour of the outside of the cup chuck 25. To mount the cup blank 4 onthe chuck 23, the blank is simply pressed on the mating surface of thespinning chuck until, the blank being rather loosely held in the loadershand, the frictional grip and adhesion of the blank 4 to the chuck 25turns the blank in the operator's hand. The blank is thereby securelyheld on the chuck for the subsequent turning and handling operations.

As a spindle '22, its chuck 26 loaded with a cup blank 4, is indexed tothe cup turning station B, it is quickly brought up to speed as itsfriction gear 23 engages the friction gear 4'5, hung beneath the top ofthe case in suitable bearings so that the upper periphery of the gear 41will extend, through a suitable slot in the case, into the annular spacebetween the turret housing 24 and case I to be contacted by the gear 23.The friction gear 41 is driven continuously by a friction drive gear 48,which, in turn, is driven by the flexible shaft 49, which is connectedto the shaft of a constantly driven power means (not shown).

At the cup turning station B the jiggered cup blank 4 is engaged and cutby the cup body turning tool 40, mounted on its compound cam leverscomprising the advancing lever 4| and the oscillating lever 42. The bodyturning tool 48 shapes the outside of the cup blank 4 to the desiredoutside contour of the cup body. As the turning tool 40 reaches itsmaximum advanced position to make its finishing cut, the lip turningtool 43, mounted on its cam lever 44 and the foot facing tool 45,mounted on its cam lever 46, are advanced to turn the lip and finish thefoot of the blank 4. Upon completion of the cuts made by the tools 43and 45, all turning tools 45, 43 and 45 are retracted, the cup blank 4having been turned and becoming the cup body 5, and the turret isindexed to carry the turned cup body to the handle sticking station C.

The advancement and retraction of the several cup turning tools withinthe period a spindle 22 remains at the turning station E is controlledby the several tool cams mounted on the tool cam shaft 50, which isdriven through the bevel gearing by the cam jack shaft 52. The cam jackshaft 52 is, in turn, driven by its gear 53 which meshes with the camshaft power take-01f gear l8, mounted on the main drive shaft 55, asstated above. The several tool operating cams are indexed in the camshaft to operate as stated above and are as follows:

The cup body turning tool 40 is operated through its compound levers 4|and 42. The

tool advancing lever 4| is pivoted on the bracket 54 and carries theroller follower 55 which follows the disk cam 56 to raise and lower thepivoted oscillating lever 42, the follower 55 being held on the edge ofthe cam 56 by the tension spring 51. The cam 56 is substantially aneccentric cam and may be provided with a slight dwell at its locus ofmaximum throw to provide a finishing cut as the tool 40 reaches itsmaximum advance. The end of the cam lever 4| carries the pivot 58 forthe oscillating cam lever 42, on the upper end of which the cup bodyturning tool 40 is mounted. The lower end of the cam lever 42 isprovided with a roller follower 59 which engages the edge of thescalloped disc cam 60, the follower 59 being held against the cam 60 bythe tension spring 6|.

As is apparent from the foregoing and from Fig, 3 of the drawings, thecam lever 4| carries the oscillating lever 42 to raise and lower andthus advance and retract the cutting tool 40 to trim off the excess clayin the cup blank 4. However, as the tool 40 is advanced by the lever 4|,it is also oscillated about the pivot 58. The effect of the oscillationof the tool 40 to roll the tool axially along the surface of the blank 4being cut, so that at any one instant, only a relatively short portionof the contoured cutting edge of the tool 49 is in actual cutting andshearing contact with the clay of the blank 4. The effect of theoscillation of the tool 40, therefore, is to produce, without actuallyadvancing the tool axially, an axially advancing helical out similar tothat taken when cups are turned manually and the turner moves hismanually held tool axially. By this means this invention avoids thetearing of the clay and slippage on the chuck which has heretofore beenencountered when it has been attternpted to turn the cup with acontoured tool corresponding to the desired contour of the cup body. Itis to be noted that the contour of the cutting edge of the tool 40 (Fig.3) does not correspond to the cut surface of the blank 4 but is anevolved curve based upon the desired contour of the cup wall butmodified by the effect of the oscillation and advancement of the cuttingtool.

The turning of the lip of the cup is normally the last operation in theturning of a cup body by hand, but in this machine it may be performedsubstantially with the foot-forming operation. Because only a narrow cutis taken in turning the lip, no oscillation of the tool is necessary,nor is the reversal of the spindle necessary, as is customary inhand-turning, the lip out being taken by the hook-shaped cutting edge ofthe tool 43 as it is advanced by its lever 44. The lever 44 is ofisetfrom the center line of the spindle 22 to extend through a suitableopening in the case where its advancement and retraction is controlledby the lip-turning cam 62, the lever 44 being pivoted on the pivot 63and provided with a roller cam follower 64. The follower 64 is heldagainst the edge of the cam 62 by a suitable tension spring '65. Becausethe movement of the lip turning tool 43 is a simple advancement andretraction, the cam 62 is substantially an eccentric disc, as shown.

The foot in the cup blank 4 is formed by a face out, preferably taken bythe foot facing tool 45 substantially simultaneously with the lipturning operation. The foot facing tool lever 45 is offset oppositely tothe offset of the lip tool lever 44 and extends through a suitableopening in the casing where its advancement and retraction is controlledby the foot facing disc cam E6, the lever 46 being pivoted on the pivot61 and provided with a roller follower 68. The follower 68 is heldagainst the end of the disc cam 66 by means of a suitable tension spring69. [The several follower operating tension springs BI, 65, and 69 areomitted in Fig. 3 for sake of clarity] Because the blank 4 exerts littletorque upon the foot facing too1 55, the tool 45 is contoured to thedesired contour of the foot, the tool being advanced at the desired rateand then held at its point of maximum advance by the dwell shown in thecams 55 in order to provide a finish out.

When the spindle 22 reaches the unloading station D, an unloadingoperator simply grips the top of the finished cup 8 in her finger tips,removes it from the chuck 2B and passes it to a sponger, who fettles offany turning tool marks or the like before placing the handled cup on theconveyor or ware board employed to carry 2 the cups to the drierpreparatory for firing in the kiln.

From the foregoing it is evident that various elements of the preferredembodiment of my cup turning machine may be altered or modified withoutdeparting from the teaching of my invention. The invention, therefore,is not limited to the specific embodiment disclosed but may be modifiedand varied within the scope of the following claims without departingfrom the purpose and spirit thereof.

What is claimed is:

1. In a machine for automatically turning green ceramic ware, a spindle,means supporting said spindle and for indexing said spindle to and awayfrom a cutting station, a ware chuck mounted on said spindle, means forrotating said spindle and chuck while said spindle is indexed at saidcutting station, a plurality of ware cutting tools mounted at saidcutting station, means to non-simultaneously advance and retract saidtools to engage and cut ware carried by said chuck when said chuck isindexed at said station, means operating said tool advancing andretracting means in timed relationship with said J spindle indexingmeans to cause said tools to be advanced and retracted to clear the wareduring the period said spindle is indexed at said cutting station, meansto rock at least one of said ware cutting tools during advancement alongcomponents normal to its path of advancement.

2. In a machine for automatically turning green ceramic ware, a spindle,means supporting said spindle and for indexing said spindle to and awayfrom a cutting station, a ware chuck mounted on said spindle, means forrotating said spindle and chuck while said spindle is indexed at saidcutting station, ware cutting tools mounted at said cutting station,means to advance and retract said tools to engage and cut ware carriedby said chuck when said chuck is indexed at said station, and meansoperating said tool advancing and retracting means in timed relationshipwith said spindle indexing means to cause said tools to be advanced andretracted to clear the ware during the period said spindle s indexed atsaid cutting station, said cutting tools including a body cutting tooladapted to turn a surface having a component parallel to the axis ofsaid spindle and including means to rock said tool in an axial directionas said tool is advanced.

3. In a ware turning machine as defined in claim 2 in which the meansfor advancing said body cutting tool comprises a first cam, a first camlever actuated by said first cam, and a second cam lever carrying saidbody cutting tool, and pivoted on said first cam lever, whereby theactuation of said first cam lever by said first cam advances andretracts said body cutting tool, said means for rocking said tool as itis advanced comprising a second cam which oscillates said second camlever as it is advanced by said first cam.

4. In a machine for automatically turning green ceramic ware, a spindle,means supporting said spindle and for indexing said spindle to and awayfrom a cutting station, a ware chuck mounted on said spindle, means forrotating said spindle and chuck while said spindle is indexed at saidcutting station, a plurality of ware cutting tools mounted at saidcutting station, means to non-simultaneously advance and retract saidtools to engage and out ware carried by said chuck when said chuck isindexed at said station, and means operating said tool advancing andretracting means in timed relationship with said spindle indexing meansto cause said tools to be advanced and retracted to clear the wareduring the period said spindle is indexed at said cutting station, saidcutting tools including a body cutting tool adapted to turn a surfacehaving a component parallel to the axis of said spindle and includingmeans to rock said tool in an axial direction as said tool is advanced,said tool advancing and retracting means comprising cams, said means foroperating said tool advancing and retracting means in timed relationshipwith the indexing of said spindle comprising a cam shaft operating saidcams and a drive connecting said cam shaft to said means for indexingsaid spindle.

JACOB JORDAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,268,984 McCormick June 11, 19181,751,049 Miller Mar. 18, 1930 1,762,387 Dengler June 10, 1930

